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Friday, Sep 5, 2008
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Strategic Context
Assad: We Won't Recognize Israel
Roee Nahmias
In interview with Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV Syrian president says country 'doesn't see interest in abandoning resistance against occupation in Lebanon, Palestine;' rejects possibility of recognizing Israel before peace deal. He added, "We don't see any interest in abandoning the resistance. Our position has always been clear. Our position toward the resistance against any occupation in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine is firm and has not changed. I don't believe it will change until the occupation changes."
(Ynet News)
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Al Qaeda Link Rebel Held in Gaza
Security forces of the Islamist Hamas group have detained a senior leader of Jaysh Al Ummah, a pro-Al Qaeda group, in the Gaza Strip, a Hamas-controlled territory, one of his aides said yesterday. Abu Hafss was ordered by the Hamas internal security service to report for questioning on Wednesday, two days after Jaysh Al Ummah held an armed training session in the Gaza Strip, and has not returned home.
(Gulf Daily News)
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Nasrallah: Hizbullah Will Never Disarm
Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has stressed that his group will not disarm even if the Shebaa Farms were liberated and acknowledged that a Hizbullah fighter was behind the downing of a Lebanese army helicopter last week. "Shebaa Farms are not a pretext to keep our arms. If the Farms were liberated now, the weapons will stay," Nasrallah said in a televised speech late last Thursday. "I am telling you that from now because we are speaking of resistance as a defense need for Lebanon," he added.
(Al Bawaba)
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Regional Affairs
Maronite Bishops Warn Against 'Serving Foreign Interests'
Maroun Khoury
The bishops held their monthly meeting on Wednesday headed by Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir nesday to achieve national reconciliation and to refrain from serving foreign at the prelate's summer seat in the mountainous northern village of Diman, near Bshareh. "Serving foreign interests by Lebanese people is an act of high treason," the statement said.
(Daily Star - Lebanon)
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Iran Jails Four Women’s Rights Activists
Iran has sentenced four women’s rights activists to six months in jail, including one who was awarded a $75,000 human rights prize in Sweden this year, campaigners said on Wednesday. It was the latest sign of a clampdown on activists working to change legislation which they say discriminates against women in the Islamic Republic. Iran rejects accusations of bias.
(The Peninsular)
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Sderot Children Feel Truce Relief
Heather Sharp
As the children gather in an outdoor amphitheatre for a welcome ceremony, a police car siren briefly starts up. Everyone freezes, glancing towards the concrete bunkers on the other side of the yard. And even after the distant wail subsides, several children hover anxiously under the protective arch of the edge of the school building, suddenly wary of the open playground in front of them.
(BBC News)
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Commentary
The Kurds and Baghdad: Marriage Without Divorce
Hiwa Osman
Baghdad does not seem ready to digest the concept of federalism. This is still a new concept for Iraqis. They have become used to a strong central state with a strong leader. The Kurds are the only people who are actively seeking to hammer out a federal structure for the country. Yet federalism should be not only a Kurdish cause, but an Iraqi cause. "They seem to have forgotten what strong centers and strong leaders did to them," remarked a Kurdish political analyst recently about Iraqis in general. Thus the current debate between the Kurdistan region and Baghdad is over a true federal status for the region and the shaping of a federal architecture for the new Iraq.
(Daily Star - Lebanon)
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Egyptian Men Behaving Badly
Khaled Diab
The harassment of women on Egypt's streets has long been ignored as an ugly fact of modern life. Whether on their way to work, study or play, millions of women are pestered verbally. Of course, harassment is a challenge everywhere, as recent debates on Cif have revealed. However, there is hardly a woman in Egypt I know who has not been on the receiving end of unwanted male attention. To prove how widespread this phenomenon is, the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights (ECWR) recently conducted a survey of hundred of Egyptian and foreign women of all backgrounds. Shockingly, 84.5% of them said they had experienced some form of sexual harassment, with most reporting that they were bothered by men every day.
(The Guardian)
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The International Tribunal and the French Visit to Damascus
Randa Takieddine
However, as long as Syria's relations with key Arab states remain poor, the quartet summit will not produce a settlement of the main problem, namely restoring Arab trust in Syria's policies, in light of the true change on this front. Sarkozy will test this for himself through a wager that will be reckless if it fails.
(Dar Al Hayat)
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MESI Issue of the Week
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Hizbullah’s Role in Attacks Against U.S. and British Forces in Iraq
Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan D. Halevi
02/09/2008
Asharq Alawsat reported on August 18, 2008, that Hizbullah operatives were involved in attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces in four Iraqi provinces. In June 2006, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield disclosed that Hizbullah cadres had attacked U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq. Hizbullah units claimed responsibility for operations against coalition forces and Iraqi security personnel as early as the latter part of 2005. A senior U.S. intelligence officer said that activists of the “Special Groups” (Shiite terror cells in Iraq) undergo training and military instruction administered by the Iranian Revolution Guards’ Qods Force and Lebanese Hizbullah at training camps in the cities of Qom, Tehran, Ahwaz, and Mashad. The official website of the Hizbullah Brigades in Iraq features scores of video clips depicting the setting off of a number of sabotage charges in one place; the use of two explosive charges in succession in order to harm rescue forces as well; the use of mortars mounted on trucks in order to make a quick getaway, and the launching of a shoulder-fired Strela missile against helicopters. Hizbullah’s deep involvement in terror throughout Iraq demonstrates that the organization does not view itself purely as a Lebanese factor with national and local objectives, but as an arm of Iran in spreading the Shiite Islamic Revolution throughout the Middle East and in the long term throughout the entire world. Hizbullah's strategic ties with with Iran's Revolutionary Guards for the purpose of operations in Iraq once again illustrate how Iran, in general, and its Revolutionary Guards, in particular, directly promote international terrorism globally.
More...
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